Why I Love Plaxo & Linked-In and How It Can Help Your Business.
Just about every week I send several LinkedIn and Plaxo invitations to customers, friends, colleagues, associates, etc… At least once a week I have someone respond with “What is this, I am not opening it, is it SPAM?”. Definitely a valid question, considering it is Frontec’s business to reduce our customer’s SPAM and help customers be more efficient. The answer is NO; I am here to tell you it is not SPAM.
Welcome to social networking 101. At another date, I will be writing about tweeter and Facebook and how social networking can actually help your business. Social networking is usually very easy but can be time consuming. Of course the best part is it is pretty much free. If I have lost your interest think about this, last week I heard a statistic that the highest users of Twitter are between the ages of 45 and 54. ……………….If your jaw is on the floor, pick it up now. I think most people think social networking is for teenagers and “texters”. More about that on another post.
I want to explain LinkedIn and Plaxo and how those social networking platforms can help you stay connected to potential customers. Have you ever been to one of those annoying chamber networking meetings where everyone is drinking, has chips falling out of their mouth and every person has headlights out for everyone else? I have been to many of those and inevitably what I have found is that most people that go to those meetings, do not need services, they are always trying to find people to sale their product or service to. So imagine all that networking without all the annoyances. That is LinkedIn. With LinkedIn you can stay connected to thousands of people that actually want to connect with you. If someone does not want to connect with you then they will not accept the invitation.
So let’s look at some possible scenarios in my business where this is beneficial. Frontec is launching a cloud computing service in a few weeks. It is going to be amazing and save companies loads of money. When that happens, I can send an update to all my LinkedIn connections with a link to more information and instantly advertise my service to hundreds of potential clients. Sure you could do the same by just mailing the announcement to a bunch of random people, but those are cold contacts. If they connect with you, they are already warm contacts and what’s better is that each of your people is connected to hundreds or thousands of other contacts. They like it, and they send it along. There is viral marketing at its best. You could do this for just about any product launch, press release, or any news you could tie into you or your company.
I do not suggest just letting your updates be sales oriented, but you could post links to interesting articles, like my blog for exampleJ. You can post interesting or funny quotes and articles that help people get to know you better. Anything to stay connected with your connections. Hmm, that sounds good, that will be my new byline and motto: “I Todd Nielsen will stay connected with my connections!” At any rate this could work for just about any type of business. With LinkedIn you can also join industry groups and get informed of news and information related to your industry or religion or hobbies and interests. Need to fill a position? Send a message out to your LinkedIn connections. Especially in today’s economy, someone is bound to know someone that could fill the position. I consider a recommendation from a connection to be much better than sifting through a thousand resumes.
LinkedIn is targeted more for the business professional. Plaxo is a little bit different. I started using Plaxo years ago, for one reason. I am lazy!!! Ok I am not lazy; I just do not have time to keep track of people’s contact information. With Plaxo, you install a little piece of software that hooks up with your Outlook. Plaxo will automatically update all their information in your Outlook address book of anyone you are connected to. I love automation!!! You can control what kind of information your connections see. For example my family gets to have my home address and cell, while others get my business address and related information. Plaxo’s tagline is “Stay in touch with the people you care about.” That is the truth because their contact information gets imported automatically in your Outlook. If a connection ever moves or changes jobs, as soon as they update their information, you now have it. One time I opened up Outlook to find a contact that I had not spoken to in a while, I discovered that this person was now in Colorado. Last I heard he was in California. So much for letting a friend now you are moving, but he, he could not hide, I had all his contact information automatically loaded in my Outlook. No Private Investigator needed!
Don’t discount social networking. It is coming like a wave, hop on or drown! Please let me know if I or Frontec can help you in your social networking quests.
My LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/toddnielsen
My Plaxo: http://tbn.myplaxo.com
Kindest Regards,
Todd Nielsen
P: 866.376.6832 F: 714.529.6633
Local #’s: 714.602.1740, 949.450.0030
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Email: tnielsen@frontecinc.com
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